Da Couch Tomato

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Cinema, television, literature, and music–basically anything that can be reviewed. If you're interested in writing reviews, e-mail us at dacouchtomato@gmail.com. We won't pay you for reviews, but you get to practise your writing skills. It's a win-win situation for everyone.

Frankenweenie

Disney

You might be asking yourself “When is Tim Burton going to do a computer-animated flick?” And the answer to that is: probably never.

Disney

"Nevah!"

There’s actually more to Tim Burton than his frizzy hair and his excessive use of Johnny Depp and Helena Bonham Carter. Burton is a bit of a purist, and also old school, which is why when he hears the word “animation”, he doesn’t think CGI, but stop-motion.

Disney

When he hears the word "3D", he thinks "ka-ching".

The thing with stop-motion animation is that it isn’t perfect, and therein lies its strength. Computer animation relies on fluidity and smoothness. The animator simply identifies the key frames, and the machine creates the in-betweens, resulting in smoother movements. Stop-motion animation, on the other hand, may seem stiff and jerky, but visually it somehow seems strangely natural.

Disney

As natural as Hello Kitty's grave.

Frankenweenie, in case you didn’t know, is an animated remake of a 1984 live-action short film of the same title, also directed by Tim Burton. It pays homage to Mary Shelley, with Burton even naming the lead character “Victor Frankenstein”. Other nods to the horror genre include casting Winona Ryder as Elsa Van Helsing, having a hunchback named Edward “E” Gore, and throwing in some stock footage of Christopher Lee as Count Dracula.

Disney

"Honey, is that Saruman?"
"Nope. Count Dooku."

Thankfully, both Johnny Depp and Helena Bonham Carter are nowhere to be found in this flick. Burton tries to go back to the true spirit of voice acting by having Martin Short play three roles, and by casting the legendary voice actor Frank Welker to play... Sparky the dog. What?